Adebayo would leave for the locker room with 10:19 left in the third quarter after receiving an elbow to the face which after Butler’s absence, fans would wonder if they would be down two stars to the Thunder. However, the team would announce that he would return after receiving seven stitches for a cut above his left eye.

For the center, he wanted to do anything to get back in the game, though he would say it was hard at first since he is not a fan of “needles.”

“I’m one of them people, I don’t really like needles, so it’s kind of rough for me in the beginning,” Adebayo said. “But you know, if you love the game enough, and obviously I do, I love being out there with my teammates, you go through stuff like that.”

Heat’s Erik Spoelstra speaks on the “toughness” of Bam Adebayo

The Heat’s captain in Adebayo would then finish with an impressive stat line of 17 points and 10 rebounds, which marked his 206th career double-double, surpassing Alonzo Mourning on the franchise’s all-time board. It would be another efficient game for Adebayo from the field as he made seven of his 11 attempts where in the beginning, it had been a cold start in terms of field goal percentage.

Still, when speaking about the famed “Heat Culture,” Adebayo encompassed that Friday night as he described his cut as “leaking” which is why he went to the locker room to get the seven stitches. Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra would talk about the “toughness” that the big man brings to the team.

“Yeah, he’s tough. You had no doubt that he was going to work his way back in there,” Spoelstra said. “If he could have just put a band-aid on there during the time out, he would have gone back at that point. And you know, that’s probably why we’re able to keep, there were a lot of good defensive performances. But Bam allows you to do a lot of different things. At the end, we had him on Williams, and then he was still able to come back and get some key rebounds. That’s just the kind of toughness that he brings.”

Heat’s Tyler Herro on how much Bam Adebayo “loves the game”

Even without Butler, Adebayo and especially the Heat All-Star hopeful Tyler Herro picked up the slack as he led the team with 28 points to go along with a season-high 12 rebounds and five assists. Having been with Adebayo for his whole career, it was nothing new to see from his teammate as he mentioned how that is exactly what you want to see from “your captain.”

“That’s what makes Bam, Bam,” Herro said. “He’s able to impact the game in so many ways, and then he gets hurt, or he gets his eye split open, and he’s able to get back into stitches and jump right back in the game. Shows how much he loves the game. He wants to be out here to help us win, that’s what you want out of your captain.”

At any rate, the game still ended in a loss, despite it being a close one, as the team won’t have much time to rest as they play the second game of the back-to-back Saturday night where the Heat take on the Orlando Magic. Miami is 13-12 which puts them sixth in the Eastern Conference before Saturday’s contest.